General Forum

 The grading of commons is usually done by the set registry people who try to get entire sets graded.  These people have lots of money to burn.  But for sets with production quality issues (anything with a black border, sets with lots of centering issues, rough cut cards like almost anything OPC up to 1990), perfect PSA 10s or BGS 100s are fairly rare and can command a premium, even for what would usually be a 5 cent common.  This niche in the hobby is really catering to a very small audience with very deep wallets.  

For the average collector, no, there would be virtually no point in grading a common.  

Here are PSA's fees:

http://www.psacard.com/Fees/

Here are Beckett's fees:

http://www.beckett.com/grading/compare_our_services

To get breaks on the fees, several sites offer group submissions, where basically your card is bundled with other people's cards and all graded in a batch to lower the per-card fee.  Without that, you're usually looking at roughly $10 to grade a single card.  But if you were talking about a 1986 OPC Jesse Barfield, it could be worth the $10 if it came back as a perfect grade because the 1986 set has the almost triple whammy of centering, black border and rough edges.

   I need a lawyer and a CPA to figure out what the heck they are talking about.

The thing of it is - you can't raise the value of an already unpriced card! It's rare, and will sell for whatever a collector wants to shell out for it if it's a possible gem in their collection, As I said, I'd only buy graded vintage cards or RC's, specially ones that are considered condition sensitive.

I got no problem with graded cards.  I don't target them specifically but I do collect them.  Only RC cards.  And I leave them in the plastic

I'm not big into graded cards. When I first saw/heard about them it was by seeing them on Ebay years and years ago. I thought then it was mostly a gimick for sellers to charge four or five times the sale value of a card. I only have 3 graded cards: http://captkirk42.blogspot.com/search/label/graded%20cards of the two I plan on keeping two of the cards in my collection and maybe sometime freeing one or both from their plastic "tombs".

I am a little surprised that no one has yet mentioned the other reason some people collect graded cards and that is because of them being "entombed" in the plastic for their preservation. For lower graded cards it keeps them from getting any worse actually saving them somewhat. That is part of the reason I haven't released my Frank Howard Milk Duds box from it's tomb as long as it stays in there I don't accidently fold/bend/mutilate it. The possibility of damaging it while trying to free it is one of the other reasons I don't free it.

I prefer the raw ungraded, non-entombed cards. I like the "feel" of the raw cards even if I never take it out of the penny sleeve just the human to cardboard contact verifies the realness or physical nature of it. As I wrote on my blog ages ago about graded cards "The distance between you and the card through the plastic tomb. It's like looking at your new born kid through the glass window at the hospital." I still feel that way a little. You can enjoy it and see it but you can't touch or feel the warmth of it.

Not to go off on a tangent here, but if I send a card to the PSA folks can they tell me if it's real or not?  I bought a Johnny Evers card about 25 years agoat a card show that looks like a 1908 E102 card, but I can't believe I would have gotten it (even way back then) for such a reasonable price.  I'd ilke to know if it's real or if it's a fake/reprint.  I don't really care either way since I didn't pay a huge amount for it, but I'd like to know. 

suomibear8 wrote: Just curious to find out your opinion on this topic.... Lately, on Ebay, I've been seeing a trend of people grading really rare or low-numbered cards. I HATE this really. A card that already has collectibility and rarity is NOT going to be improved price-wise by grading it!! I just don't understand the logic behind it. Do you agree with grading rare cards? My opinion is - grade base RC's, SP RC's, or vintage only. I want to possibly buy this card (the price is decent graded or not, and it's a parallel insert), but if I do, I'm going to crack open that case to get to it! I hear that's difficult to do, and I don't want to damage the card, but I know there's a way. Not sure if I'll buy it yet, but the grading of a rare non-vintage card/SP is driving me nuts!!   What do you all think? Would you buy it and crack it open, or just wait for another raw one to possibly (maybe never) come around?